The following is a summary of “Associations of sleep disorders with serum neurofilament light chain levels in Parkinson’s disease,” published in the May 2024 issue of Neurology by Qi et al.
Despite the common occurrence of sleep problems in Parkinson’s disease (PD), there’s a current need for specific biomarkers to diagnose these issues.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study investigating how sleep disorders in people with early or prodromal PD relate to neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels.
They examined 1,113 participants, comprising 585 with early PD, 353 with prodromal PD, and 175 HCs. The study explored the links between sleep disorders (such as rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS)) and serum NfL levels using various regression models. Additionally, multiple linear regression models investigated the associations between changes in daytime sleepiness rates and serum NfL levels.
The results showed that in baseline analysis, early and prodromal PD individuals displaying specific RBD behaviors had notably higher serum NfL levels. Early PD individuals with nocturnal dream behaviors (β = 0.033; P=0.042) and movements during sleep (β = 0.027; P=0.049) showed significantly elevated serum NfL levels. For prodromal PD individuals, disturbed sleep correlated with higher serum NfL levels (β = 0.038; P=0.026). Longitudinally, serum NfL levels increased in early PD individuals with higher RBDSQ scores (β = 0.002; P=0.011), probable RBD (β = 0.012; P=0.009), or behaviors on multiple RBDSQ sub-items. Additionally, early PD individuals with higher ESS scores (β = 0.001; P=0.012), EDS (β = 0.013; P=0.007), or daytime sleepiness across various conditions showed a trend towards increased serum NfL levels.
Investigators concluded that sleep disorders were linked to higher NfL levels, suggesting PD neuronal damage and underlining the value of early detection for timely intervention.
Source: bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12883-024-03642-y